For the majority of my nearly 42 years of existence, I have had a singular impression of salespeople. One of my earlier and most vivid memories is that of my dad shopping for a new car, an experience that lasted several hours and eventually ended with the terrifying image of his 6’4″ 250 pound frame lunging at the salesman in an attempt to get back the “missing” keys to the car we had intended to trade in. (In all fairness to the salesman, that memory probably has more to do with my father than him, but that’s another story.) The Eugene Levy scene in Vacation, pretty much every scene in Glengarry Glen Ross, aggressive salesmen repeatedly bursting through the door of my childhood home, the sight of my father nearly sending the car salesman to the hospital… I developed a very negative impression of salespeople and the general concept of sales. So naturally I decided that after a decade or so of focusing on customer service at Indra’s Net, I should become a salesperson.

The transition was objectively interesting and subjectively awkward. I tried several “salesy” techniques: using a louder voice than usual, visualizing the kill, overemphasizing our strengths and omitting our weaknesses, wearing a 3-piece suit from dawn to dusk, calling prospects back every day, and other tacks that felt unnatural. Not surprisingly, I didn’t close many sales. Eventually I stopped trying so hard and started talking in my normal voice, being honest about our strengths AND weaknesses, wearing comfortable clothes, and giving prospects the time and space to consider our services and whether or not Indra’s Net was a good match for their needs. Not surprisingly, I started getting a lot of callbacks and closing a lot of sales.

I guess when mom encouraged me for all those years to simply be myself, she really knew what she was talking about. I just didn’t know she knew so much about sales.